Just Another Harry Potter Fanfiction
by Alexandra Thyme
Summary: When Harry Potter finds himself tracking down a newly arisen Death Eater group, he is attacked and thrown into the past, where he has to decide whether he wants to relive his life the same, or change events to save lives and indefinitely alter his own. What will he choose? Inspiration from Priya Ashok's Harry Potter and the Trip to the Past. No intentional copying, just another AU.


_**{A/N: **__J.K. Rowling is the Queen. Every single thing from the Harry Potter Universe, including concepts of magic, belong to her intellectually. She is brilliant and wonderful and her books have been inspiring me for 17 years. Yes, the year the Scholastic print of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone came out in the USA, I was 11 years old. I grew up, literally, with Harry, Hermione, Ron, and all their friends. I am now considerably older (I mean, you can do the math and know my age, it's not hard) and I own both US and UK versions of the Harry Potter books. I have come to love the UK versions of the books even more than the US versions with which I grew up._

_I realize that there are probably hundreds upon hundreds of time-travel, alternate universe fanfictions out there, so hopefully mine does not bore you to death. I also have real life, adult grown-up stuff going on in my life, so if updates are not as regular as you'd like, please don't get frustrated with me. I'm not particularly adept at writing over 2,000 words per chapter, but I will try my hardest to make them worthwhile._

_Reviews are always welcome, particularly critical reviews. Tell me what I'm not doing well. Have I made the characters go out of character in conversation or action? Do you want to see more setting description? These are desperately important things to a good fanfiction, and always things I try to tell other fanfic authors on this site. You can also feel free to give me suggestions, and if they are plausible, they may end up in my fanfiction. Remember, to an author on this site, reviews are like...they're like...um...just imagine something wonderful you can't live without right now. They're like that._

_I promise, not all author's notes will be as long as this one. I just had to get all this stuff out of the way._

_Oh, and P.S. I got my original concept from Priya Ashok's fanfic Harry Potter and the Trip to the Past. She inspired me, and although the theme of time-travel is similar, I will not be copying her ideas. I am honestly trying to write my own story here, and without her, I'd never have tried to attempt it.__**}**_

**Chapter One  
>After the Epilogue<strong> 

"He'll be all right." At Ginny's murmur, Harry nodded, brushing his fingers past the scar that he had not felt twinge in 19 years.

"I know he will," he smiled wistfully at her. "I just don't know if I will be." For a brief moment, Harry's heart yearned to return to Hogwarts, to be in Albus's place, meeting his friends again, experiencing the train, and the crossing over the lake. If it were possible, would he mind being sorted into Slytherin this time?

Ginny's bright brown eyes tried to read Harry's odd expression as they walked back toward the barrier, Lily in tow. "What are you thinking about?" she asked softly.

"Missing Al already, and kind of jealous of him, actually," said Harry, a schoolboy smile crossing his face. "I was just wondering what kind of things I'd do differently if I got a second chance."

Ginny chuckled. "Oh really? Like what, Mr Boy-Who-Lived?"

A slight blush dusted Harry's cheeks. "Well, maybe I'd have payed attention to you sooner, Mrs Potter." The corner of his mouth twitched mischieviously.

Ginny smacked his arm playfully. "Oh all right, sure," she laughed.

Harry's teasing smile widened as he chivvied Lily through the barrier to King's Cross.

Hermione and Ron caught up to them outside the barrier, and struck up a conversation about having lunch in London.

"Honestly, the sooner the better," groaned Ron, rubbing his stomach painfully. Hermione poked him right in his generous gut.

"You had plenty of your mother's mince pies when we stopped over this morning and nearly made us late to drop off Rose!"

"Yeah but I didn't did I?" argued Ron, the tips of his ears turning red. "She loves to feed us, you know that. Makes her happy."

"Yes, well…" Hermione grumbled. "I do love your mother, Ron, Ginny, I do, but next time, please, let's either arrive the day before, or set out early in the morning to arrive in London. I've never felt so agitated in my life!"

Behind her back, Ron and Harry grinned at one another, knowing that they could name plenty of times Hermione had been more agitated than she was this morning at arriving almost too late to Platform 9¾.

"It's really easy to please Mum, Hermione," said Ginny kindly, linking arms with her best friend. "And I'm sure if you showed up a day early next year, she would not complain!" At this, both Hermione and Ginny laughed, Lily and Hugo sharing confused looks as their mother's towed them along.

"Well, then instead of having lunch in London," said Ron, catching them up, Harry right behind, "Why don't we go back to the Burrow and have lunch with Mum!"

Hermione and Ginny's laughter faded, as Hermione sighed, "Well, all right. But we're not staying the night!"

Of course, they were staying the night. After a huge scrumptious supper of roasted potatoes, pan-fried chicken, and all sorts of green vegetables from the garden, all made and prepared by a deliriously happy Mrs Weasley, Ron, Hermione and Hugo were set up in Ron's old room, which had been given an enlargement charm by Hermione almost immediately ("There's hardly any room in here for two adults plus a child!" she'd grumbled as she set about casting the charm with a wave of her wand.) And Ginny, Harry and Lily were staying in Ginny's old room on the second floor. Lily was having fun jumping on Ginny's old bed that Harry had enforced with a bouncing charm when Ginny came in the room, shutting the door tight behind her and locking it with a wave of her wand. She then whispered "Muffliato!" at the door as well.

"Don't fancy your Mum coming in to check on us in the middle of the night?" Harry teased.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "More like to keep our bouncing bundle of joy in and keep her from waking up Mum and Dad in the night if she has another night terror." She said, gesturing at the still-bouncing Lily as she sat down on the large mattress Harry had conjured earlier, noticing it was bare.

"How is it that the greatest wizard of our time who defeated the Dark Lord Voldemort can't even conjure a bed up correctly?" she grinned, standing up and pulling Harry to his feet from where he'd been sitting next to her. She waved her wand and the bed was made with maroon-colored Egyptian cotton sheets and a lovely maroon down comforter, a golden snitch with silver wings superimposed in the middle.

"Oh and Harry," said Ginny, pausing to pull out a piece of rolled parchment from her robes, before she sat back down on the bed, "Albus wrote us this evening." Harry eagerly took the letter from Ginny, sitting down next to her and unrolling the parchment with excitement.

_Dear Mum and Dad,_

_James was a huge git on the train, but he's normally a git, so who cares anyway. He kept telling me that the Sorting Ceremony was you having to put your hand in a box, and if you weren't sorted right away, it chomped your hand off. He scared Rose, but she didn't cry, she was very brave about it and told James if he was lying, she'd learn Mum's bat-bogey hex and use it on him. He laughed at her and left to go sit with his friends._

_I was really nervous, but when I was called up to the front of the Great Hall to be Sorted, I pretended I wasn't nervous at all. I was really relieved that you were right about the Sorting Hat. I was kind of scared that James was right about the box._

"Looks like someone is going to need a howler at breakfast," Harry growled.

"That won't work with James, you know that," sighed Ginny. "If anything, it will encourage him to keep up his teasing."

Harry sighed as he continued reading.

_You were right about me being able to choose the house I wanted, Dad. The hat said I would do well in Gryffindor or Slytherin. I met a kid earlier on the train, I think he's the son of one of your friend's, and he told me that he wanted to be sorted into Slytherin on purpose. When I asked him why, he said it was because he had a lot of ambitions to become a great wizard and he wanted to make his father proud of him. We became friends, and I told him I guessed I wouldn't mind being sorted into Slytherin either, for the same reasons. So when I thought about this while I was sitting with the Sorting Hat on my head, it shouted "SLYTHERIN!" I think I'm actually relieved about this, because now I won't have James in my Common Room to bully me around his friends._

Harry looked up from the letter with a huge smile on his face as his green eyes met Ginny's, and she smiled back, her eyes shining with a few unshed tears. "I know, Harry. It's wonderful, isn't it?"

"He is going to do wonders in Slytherin," murmured Harry happily, his eyes coursing down the parchment page as he found his place again among the happily scrawled letters.

_I am a bit sad about not being in the house you and Mum were sorted into-_

"Don't be upset about that, Albus," murmured Harry unconsciously as he kept reading.

_-but I hope that I can make you both proud all the same. I have my new friend Scorpius and I can't wait for lessons to start on Monday! I'll write again soon, let you know how I'm getting along.  
>Love you both,<br>Albus_

Harry let the parchment roll up into his hands and clasped it fervently between them. Then he turned and wrapped his arms around Ginny, and her arms reached around him, pulling him close.

Lily kept jumping loudly on Ginny's old bed, laughing happily and shouting "Albus is a sna-ake! Albus is a sna-ake!"

Next morning at breakfast, when everyone had more or less gathered around the table, Mrs Weasley bustled around serving everyone generous helpings of breakfast sausage, scrambled eggs, and toast, doting on her two grandchildren with plenty of kisses and extra helpings of pumpkin juice.

"You're spoiling them, Mum!" complained Ron as Hugo begged to have a chocolate frog instead of the heaping pile of scrambled eggs Mrs Weasley was about to pile onto his plate.

Ignoring her son, she smiled down at her grandson, her eyes twinkling. "Now Hugo, if you have a chocolate frog now instead of your eggs, what am I supposed to give you later for a treat?" Hugo laughed and allowed his grandmother to give him some eggs.

"Be nice to your mother, Ronald," scolded Hermione, and Ron's ears turned red as he took too-large bites of his own breakfast. "Thank you for feeding us so many wonderful meals, Molly. It really has been lovely to spend the night," Hermione said kindly to her mother-in-law.

"It's no trouble at all, dear," smiled Mrs Weasley. "I love having my grandchildren over for a visit." Ron gave an accentuated _ahem!_ and Mrs Weasley added, "It's also nice to see my own children once in a while, when they're not being rude."

Ginny snorted into her pumpkin juice while Ron choked on a bite of egg. Mrs Weasley pretended to ignore her children and directed her next line of conversation to Harry and Hermione.

"So, busy day at the Ministry?" she asked nonchalantly.

Hermione nodded. "I have to get back to the office as soon as possible. Some newly found Dark object was just sent in, so I'm going to have to check it over with several Dark spells to find out exactly what it's for. Then I can disenchant it and throw it in the rubbish bin where it belongs."

"What about you, Harry?" asked Mrs Weasley, looking interested.

Harry set down his utensils, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "Well, I won't know until I get in, but I don't think it'll be a very busy day for me. I'll just check in with the Minister and see if he has anything he wants me to check out."

"Well, I hope you both have a good day in the office."

"Thank you!"

"Thank you very much."

Their sentiments expressed, the conversation went on to Rose's and Albus's first day at Hogwarts.

"Rose sent us a short letter with her owl," explained Hermione as Ron continued onto his fourth plate of eggs and sausage. "She's been Sorted into Gryffindor!"

"Ruddy good of the Sorting Hat," said Ron around his mouthful of food. "I think I'd die of embarrassment if she'd turned out a Hufflepuff, don't you?"

Hermione elbowed him and he flinched away, trying to swallow his mouthful before he choked on it.

Ginny glared at her brother. "Well Al's been Sorted into Slytherin, and we're very proud of him!" Harry put his arm around her shoulders and nodded.

"Couldn't be happier."

Ron coughed a bit, pounding his own chest with a closed fist. "Slytherin! Bad luck, mate. What's poor Albus going to do in Slytherin?"

"Become a great wizard and help unite the Hogwarts houses, was my first hope," said Harry seriously.

Ginny still looked stormily at her older brother. "You know that prejudice against a certain type of people to create division and bigotry was Voldemort's calling card, don't you Ron?"

Shame crept over Ron's reddening face. "I'm not bigoted!" he stuttered.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Maybe not on purpose. But saying disparaging things about Slytherin? That's bigotry, Ronald."

Ron stood up from the table, looking angry and ashamed. "I'll go pack our things."

"Good idea," said Hermione sardonically as Ron stomped his way out of the kitchen and up the stairs. 

Once outside the Burrow, Ginny and Harry shared a tender kiss (all the while Lily made gagging noises and groaned) before Ginny side-along apparated with Lily back to their home in Godric's Hollow, and Harry apparated to the Ministry.

"Good morning, Potter!"

"Hello, Potter!"

Harry nodded at the greetings from fellow wizards as he made his way to the elevators. Stepping inside an open grate to a semi-full elevator, he waited patiently for the grate to close as parchment airplanes hovered overhead.

When he'd reached the correct floor, Harry stepped out and began walking down the hallway, reaching the Minister's office. He could hear the low rumble of Kingsley Shacklebolt's voice as he approached the door, opening it by whispering the password to the keyhole. There was a click as the door unlocked and gently swung ajar just enough for Harry to push through.

Minister Shacklebolt was speaking to someone's head in the fire, another Auror by the name of Dolesley.

"...Death Eaters who want to create the old vendetta against muggles and muggleborn wizards," Dolesley was saying hurriedly, looking nervous. "We haven't found proof that they are reforming, but the rumor alone is worrying."

"Then we must create a task force to handle this," the Minister said, pacing before the green fire that engulfed Dolesley's head. "After 19 years of peace, we cannot have another War. We must hunt down and eliminate any so-called Death Eaters."

"Yes, Minister," said Dolesley solemnly.

"We have to start right away creating the task force, then," said Harry, striding up to the Minister, whose surprised turned to relief when he saw the Head of Department was already there.

"You are dismissed," he said to Dolesley's head, and the Auror disappeared, the fire turning normal. He turned to Harry. "I hope these are only rumors, Potter."

Harry looked grim. "So do I, Minister."


End file.
